philosophical conversations

Klossowski, the Body and Language

Personalising the Klossowski material is a good way into it... especially given that he is addressing the manner in which Nietzsche was able to communicate his own experience (emotional and valitudinary) in writing. The unconscious/ conscious distinction is one way of approaching Klossowski's schema. Or, alternatively, it can be divided into the body and language—which more or less align to unconscious/conscious for both Klossowski and Nietzsche anyway. The code of everyday signs [le code des signes quotidiens] is language, and so average, exchangable between every member of one's cultural group. It thus compromises the individuality of the body's experience, favouring (or empowering) the average instincts: that is, those concerned with the survival of the group. From the perspective of consciousness, or the code of everyday signs, it is difficult to experience the body's uniqueness—or whatever sets it apart from the group... And it is especially difficult to express extreme or intense bodily/emotional states (hohe -Gefüle or -Stimmungen). Thus, Klossowski is interested in how Nietzsche was able to find a sign (the eternal return) that could depict his own experience, albeit (or perhaps necessarily) in a veiled manner. The eternal return is, according to Klossowski, Nietzsche's 'phantasm': an obsessional image that conveys his most dominant impulse, and a touch-stone to which his writing returns, again and again.

Pierre Klossowski
Roberte and Gulliver (ca. 1978)

We could see Klossowski's own phantasm as expressed in his artwork , which often depicts a woman, Roberte, exhibiting herself. This phantasm is elaborated in writing in his novel Roberte Ce Soir, although I have to admit that I find this less interesting than his work on Nietzsche and Sade.